Middleweight 3-17-08

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Rank

Fighter

Comments

1.

Anderson Silva

His name is The Spider, king of kings: Look on his works, ye Mighty, and despair.

2.

Paulo Filho

With Henderson eating back-to-back losses and Lawler and Lindland dropping due to continued inactivity, Filho seems like the default #2 for now. But his potential is limited — personal loyalty will prevent him from ever fighting Anderson Silva, and his substance abuse problems may jeopardize his career altogether.

3.

Rich Franklin

4.

Kazuo Misaki

5.

Yushin Okami

6.

Dan Henderson

Losing to two champions doesn’t make you a has-been. Hendo just needs a couple of solid wins to skate back to the top half of this list. Still, like everyone else in the UFC’s middleweight division, a championship belt is out of the question as long as Anderson Silva lives and breathes.

7.

Robbie Lawler

8.

Denis Kang

9.

Matt Lindland

IFL superfights aside, The Law’s career has drifted aimlessly since he parted ways with the UFC in 2005; of course, getting screwed by BodogFight isn’t in anybody’s 5-year plan. We hope his alleged deal with the new Affliction/Golden Boy MMA promotion will have him fighting regularly and against tough opponents, because as of now, his talent is being wasted to a tragic degree.

10.

Frank Shamrock

People talk about Frank like he’s a relic from the past, and don’t give him enough credit for the current threat that he is. Outside of an illegal-knee disqualification loss to Renzo Gracie, Shamrock hasn’t lost a fight since 1997. We see him whipping Cung Le, his brother Ken, and any other middleweight who isn’t prepared to handle his top-notch submissions and cage experience.

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